China Labour Bulletin appears in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.
China Coal Mine Explosion Kills 134 Workers, With 15 Missing
By Allen T. Cheng and Edward DeMarco
Bloomberg
28 November 2005
The death toll from a coal mine blast late yesterday in northeastern China has reached at least 134 in the second major industrial accident to affect Heilongjiang province within a week.
The deaths almost doubled between a tally at 4:30 p.m. local time by the government's work safety agency in Beijing and another at 8 p.m. announced by the country's Xinhua news agency amid a rescue operation that involved 380 people. Fifteen miners are still missing, Xinhua said. There were 221 miners below the surface at the time of the explosion, the State Administration for Work Safety said on its Web site.
Unidentified investigators cited by Xinhua said an explosion of coal dust triggered the disaster by knocking out all ventilation systems in the mine. At least 38 rescued miners were being treated in a hospital for injuries.
Deaths from major coal mine accidents in China more than doubled to 1,159 in the first nine months as companies strained to meet demand in an economy that has grown 9.5 percent a year for the past decade. The blast, which came hours after drinking- water supply was restored in the provincial capital of Harbin after a chemical spill, shows government messages on work safety aren't reaching some companies, said researcher Robin Munro.
"The message isn't getting through at the grass roots, solely because the mine owners and operators are focused entirely on making a quick buck,'' said Munro, Hong Kong-based research director of the China Labour Bulletin.
The mine is run by the Qitaihe branch of the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Group Co., which owns four major coal companies in the province, Xinhua said.
China, the world's largest coal consumer, relies on the fuel for two-thirds of its energy needs and has one of the world's worst mine safety records. The country plans to shut more than 13,000 coal mines by 2010 to boost competitiveness and safety, Wu Yin, director-general of the Energy Bureau at the National Development and Reform Commission, said in Beijing Nov. 1.
The fatality rate among Chinese miners for each million tons of coal produced reached 3.08 last year, Wu said. The government aims to cut this to less than 1.6 by 2010 as the industry consolidates. The government classifies a major mining accident as one that kills more than 10 people.
Three million residents of Harbin all had water again by 6p.m. yesterday, four days after officials shut off supply from the Songhua River because of contamination caused by a Nov. 13 chemical explosion at a PetroChina Co. plant. The blast killed five workers.
In February, an explosion at a coal mine in the northeastern province of Liaoning killed more than 200, in the worst mining accident reported since Communist Party rule began in 1949.
In August, 123 miners died after a coal shaft flooded in the southern province of Guangdong. Rescue efforts were complicated after the mine's management fled the scene, a spokeswoman for the safety administration said.
Last year, 6,027 workers died in 3,639 coal mine accidents in China, according to the work safety administration. The number of deaths was 6.3 percent less than the previous year, it said.
The world's deadliest coal mining disaster took place in northeastern China in 1942, when an accident killed 1,549 miners.
--With reporting by Lee Spears in Hong Kong.
China Coal Mine Explosion Kills 134 Workers, With 15 Missing
By Allen T. Cheng and Edward DeMarco
Bloomberg
28 November 2005
The death toll from a coal mine blast late yesterday in northeastern China has reached at least 134 in the second major industrial accident to affect Heilongjiang province within a week.
The deaths almost doubled between a tally at 4:30 p.m. local time by the government's work safety agency in Beijing and another at 8 p.m. announced by the country's Xinhua news agency amid a rescue operation that involved 380 people. Fifteen miners are still missing, Xinhua said. There were 221 miners below the surface at the time of the explosion, the State Administration for Work Safety said on its Web site.
Unidentified investigators cited by Xinhua said an explosion of coal dust triggered the disaster by knocking out all ventilation systems in the mine. At least 38 rescued miners were being treated in a hospital for injuries.
Deaths from major coal mine accidents in China more than doubled to 1,159 in the first nine months as companies strained to meet demand in an economy that has grown 9.5 percent a year for the past decade. The blast, which came hours after drinking- water supply was restored in the provincial capital of Harbin after a chemical spill, shows government messages on work safety aren't reaching some companies, said researcher Robin Munro.
"The message isn't getting through at the grass roots, solely because the mine owners and operators are focused entirely on making a quick buck,'' said Munro, Hong Kong-based research director of the China Labour Bulletin.
The mine is run by the Qitaihe branch of the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Group Co., which owns four major coal companies in the province, Xinhua said.
Mine Fatalities
China, the world's largest coal consumer, relies on the fuel for two-thirds of its energy needs and has one of the world's worst mine safety records. The country plans to shut more than 13,000 coal mines by 2010 to boost competitiveness and safety, Wu Yin, director-general of the Energy Bureau at the National Development and Reform Commission, said in Beijing Nov. 1.
The fatality rate among Chinese miners for each million tons of coal produced reached 3.08 last year, Wu said. The government aims to cut this to less than 1.6 by 2010 as the industry consolidates. The government classifies a major mining accident as one that kills more than 10 people.
Three million residents of Harbin all had water again by 6p.m. yesterday, four days after officials shut off supply from the Songhua River because of contamination caused by a Nov. 13 chemical explosion at a PetroChina Co. plant. The blast killed five workers.
Worst Accident
In February, an explosion at a coal mine in the northeastern province of Liaoning killed more than 200, in the worst mining accident reported since Communist Party rule began in 1949.
In August, 123 miners died after a coal shaft flooded in the southern province of Guangdong. Rescue efforts were complicated after the mine's management fled the scene, a spokeswoman for the safety administration said.
Last year, 6,027 workers died in 3,639 coal mine accidents in China, according to the work safety administration. The number of deaths was 6.3 percent less than the previous year, it said.
The world's deadliest coal mining disaster took place in northeastern China in 1942, when an accident killed 1,549 miners.
--With reporting by Lee Spears in Hong Kong.